>Well, upon disassembling my pb5300, I checked and discovered >the PRAM battery is good.
I'm curious to know what you mean by that. I just pulled the PRAM battery pack from my PB 190, and both the cells tested at 3.25 volts (they're rated at 3 volts, I believe) but it was giving me dead PRAM battery symptoms nonetheless, like the classic "green light of death" business. I believe these are rechargeable Lithium cells and we all know from the discussions about rebuilding power batteries that rechargeable batteries don't last forever. To further confuse things, a near-totally dead battery will often read at or near rated voltage--but not for long. If you want to test your PRAM batteries, leave them hooked to your voltmeter for few hours-- if the voltage readout falls, you've got a dead battery. If it falls within a few minutes or seconds, the battery has been killed several times over! Just to complicate things, dead batteries will often recover a portion of their capacity if allowed to sit disconnected for a few hours or days. Nothing magical, just chemistry at work. Think about it this way: A battery is nothing more than a chemical reaction in a box. To work properly, that reaction must run at the same rate (for want of a better word) while a current is being drawn from it. As a battery runs down the rate of this reaction slows. Recharging returns the rate to normal. After enough recharge/discharge cycles, though, no amount of recharging will bring the rate back up. To further the analogy, the reaction continues to run at a lower rate when the battery sits disconnected. This allows a "dead" battery to build up enough reserve to run at the normal rate for a short burst, hence the misleading voltmeter readings. By the way, I just bought a new PRAM battery for my 190. I suggest you do likewise. There's an auction up on Ebay right now--the same guy I bought mine from. Searching "5300 pram" should turn it up. HTH, Jesse -- PowerBooks is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Enter To Win A | -- Canon PowerShot Digital Cameras start at $299 | Free iBook! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PowerBooks list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/powerbooks.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/powerbooks%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
